Lorde is a big fan of Conor Oberst. For a while her Twitter bio was a quote from the Bright Eyes song “Let’s Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And To Be Loved),” and it turns out that the admiration is mutual.

For an article called “Mutual Admiration, Across the Sea, Across the Years,” the New York Times got the two musicians together for a phone chat during which they proceeded to shower each other in compliments. Lorde told Oberst:

The way you express emotion as a songwriter, it’s childlike. It’s fierce and honest and intense, and you’re kind of defying people to say that they didn’t feel the same way as you.

While Oberst lets Lorde know:

With your writing, you can do it all at once. You can have this amazing pop anthem that the whole world’s going to sing, and you can still communicate solid, concrete ideas and paint this very vivid picture of lost teenagers in this faraway place.